The Wine Advocate | RP 95-97
Published: Jul 9, 2020

The pale lemon-gold colored 2019 Coutet is a thrill ride from the get-go, exploding from the glass with fantastically intense scents of tangerine peel, lime blossoms and lemon marmalade over a core of pineapple upside-down cake, candied ginger, ripe apricots and clover honey plus suggestions of chanterelles and musk perfume. The palate is equally electric and exhilarating, prancing around the palate with a whole myriad of candied citrus, stone fruit and citrus flavors, charged by a racy backbone of acidity, finishing beautifully textured and with an epically long firework display of minerals. Apart from all that, it is pretty darn delicious. 
Drink Date: 2025 - 2055

Jamessuckling.com | JS 94-95
Published: Jun 3, 2020

A sweet, dense and rich white with oily character. Full and layered. Extremely long. Spicy. Very dense. 

Winemaker

WEATHER CONDITIONS
A wet spring: after a month of March close to normal, April and May were marked by significant rainfall. This allowed a good development of the vine and the start of the flowering in good conditions at the beginning of June. Dry and hot summer: the beginning of summer is marked by an early heat wave, with record-breaking temperatures.
A month-long drought followed, ending with a salvaging thunderstorm that produced 81mm of rainfall on 26 and 27July. The sunny month of August, interspersed with light rains, ripened the fruit to perfection, a dry and hot September goldened the grapes, however, delayed a bit the botrytisation process. The fogs eventually arrived allowing the harvest to start on 3 October with a small cleaning pass. These climatic conditions have generated a harvest whose quality is indisputably present.

HARVEST
The first picking pass took place on 3 and 4 October. For two and a half days, a team of 40 pickers allowed us to pick three and a half barrels of a lot of remarkable quality with a potential alcohol of 22%. After a rapid evolution of the Botrytis cinerea mushroom, thanks to very ripe grapes as well as an ideal climatology, the second pass started on 9 October. This pass allowed us to pick 90% of our grapes over the course of 11 consecutive days. The resulting lots represent the best from Coutet with alcohol potentials between 21.5% and 24.7%. Finally, after a break of one day, we finished the harvest with a third pass that provided a very interesting lot for its freshness and its aromatic qualities.

HARVEST DATES 3 October to 23 October 2019
PASSES 3 manuel successive passes 1 cleaning pass
NUMBER OF DAYS OF HARVEST 19
GRAPE VARIETIES Semillon 75%, Sauvignon Blanc 23%, Muscadelle 2%
FERMENTATION in barrel (50% new)
AGEING 18 months in French oak barrels 100% French oak
ESTATE BOTTLED to be bottle June 2021

TASTING NOTES
The tasting of the 2019 vintage brings out Coutet's signature nose, marked by notes of pear, ginger and exotic fruits. The palate is particularly fresh this year, offering a very modern Coutet.